Sanitary container and lid construction

ABSTRACT

A sanitary container and lid construction with the open end of the container presenting a peripheral drinking or pouring lip and initially covered by a coating layer or film to which the container lid or film is suitably attached. It is alternatively contemplated that the lid may be attached both to the rim or lip and the coating. The coating and lid preserves the initial sanitary condition of the lip and the interior of the container, and the coating and lid are of such that the coating and lid will be peeled away from the lip with a reverse drawing of one edge of the lid across the top of the container to expose the contents of the container and to leave a sanitary lip for drinking or pouring purpose.

United States Patent 1191 Edwards I June 18, 1974 SANITARY CONTAINER AND LID CONSTRUCTION [75] Inventor: Bryant Edwards, Clarendon Hills,

[73] Assignee: Illinois Tool Works, Inc., Chicago,

[22] Filed: Aug. 26,1971

21 Appl. No.: 175,260

Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart 0f Ser. No. 56,560, July 20,.

1970, abandoned.

2,893,456 7/1959 Wallace .L 220/60 Primary Examiner-Herbert F. Ross [5 7 ABSTRACT A sanitary container and lid construction with the open end of the container presenting a peripheral drinking or pouring lip and initially covered by a coating layer or film to which the container lid or film is suitably attached. It is alternatively contemplated that the lid may be attached both to the rim or lip and the coating. The coating and lid preserves the initial sanitary condition of the lip and the interior of the container, and the coating and lid are of such that the coating and lid will be peeled away from the lip with a reverse drawing of one edge of the lid across the top of the container to expose the contents of the container and to leave a sanitary lip for drinking or pouring purpose.

2 Claims,8 Drawing Figures PATENTEBJuu 18 m4 SHEEIIBFZ INVENTOR. Bryan) Edwards His A ff'ys PATENTEDJmna m4 3.8mm?

SHEET 2 0F 2 INVENTOR. Bryan) Edwards 1 SANITARY CONTAINER LID CONSTRUCTION SUMMARY OF TI-IE INVENTION A Containers which present a sanitary drinking lip have been previously provided. Often, in such containers, the cover is formed to have a depending rim portion andthe cover is sealed as by heat sealing with plastic materials to the container body either by sealing the depending rim portion of the cover or lid to the container body wall or by sealing the cover portion to the top edge of the body wall. Also, such containers have utilized a film type plastic cover with a depending rim portion seal -to the container body wall. In these types of containers, the sealing connection is generally of the frangible typewhereby lifting 'or twisting of the rim portion will break the sealing connection for removal of the cover and the presentation of the sanitary edge por' tion of the container body. In other types of containers, a plastic covering has been provided for the edge of the container body wall with an included inner cover portion, requiring removalof the cover portion and then removal-of the plastic edge portion. According to the present invention, the drinking or pouring edge or rim of the container is maintained in sanitary condition during shipment and storage or display, by a coating which may be sprayed or otherwise applied thereto. The cover or lid is flat'with no depending rim portions and is adhered to theuppermost portion-of the coating at the top of the container lip toseal the container. A]- ternatively the lid may also be sealed to the container. The cover sheet or lid is preferably of a configuration to present one or more corner portions projecting radially of the container toserve as gripping means in removing the cover and coating from thecontainer.

I An object of this invention is to provide a container assembly of the above type wherein the coating for the container lip is in the form of a peelable film adhered to the cover so that removal of the cover will result in simultaneously peeling off the coating from the container lip to expose a sanitary lip about the upper end of the container. v

Another object of the invention is to provide a container assembly of the above type wherein the cover portion is provided with peripheral extensions beyond the coating lip to serve as handle or gripping means by which the cover and coating film may be integrally removed from the container.

A further object of the invention is to provide a container assembly of the above type having an outwardly curled drinking or upper rim'port ion with the exposed rim portion below the cover completely covered with a peelable coating during transport and storage.

The invention still further aims to provide a simple process for providing a sanitary container and lid assembly which lends itself to inexpensive manufacture with a simple coating operation for the drinking or pouring edge of the container and with an equally simple cover and method for adhering the cover to the ap- 1 2 plied edge coating for sealing the contents of the container and providing sanitary protection for the container rim.

The above and other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will be I hereinafter more fully pointed out in connection with the detailed description and the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a fragmentary perspective view of a sealed container assembly made according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary side view, half in section, of the sealed container assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a further enlarged fragmentary section showing the curled lip of the container of FIGS. 1 and 2 with the peelable coating applied thereto prior to application of. the cover;

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but showing the cover applied;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view showing partial removal of the cover and peelable coating from the container; I

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged fragmentary section of the assembly of FIG. 6 but prior to application of the cover; and 1 FIG..8 is a view similar to FIG. 6 but showing the cover-applied.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the accompanying drawings, and firstly with reference to FIG. I, the container is illustrated as having a body wall 10 of round configuration slightly tapering downwardly and inwardly to the closed bottom end thereof. The upper end of the body wall 10 is formed with an outwardly, downwardly and thence inwardly curledperipheral lip 12 which is initially coated to maintain the sanitary condition thereof as will be pointed out below. In FIG. 6 another form of container is shown and the body wall 20 thereof is upwardly and inwardly tapered to the curled rim2l. The peripheral lip' 21 over the portions thereof facing radially outwardly are initially coated to maintain the sanitary condition thereof as will be pointed out below.

An out-of-round film type lid or cover 14 of suitable sheet plastic or other material such as a thin metal foil is secured, in the embodiment of FIGS. 1-5, solely to thecoating by adhesion, heat sealing or the like. In the embodiment of FIGS. 6-8 the lid 14 is secured to the coating and to the upper edge of the rim 21 by adhesion, heat sealing or the like. In the preferred embodiments, the lid 14 is rectangular or substantially square so that the comer portions thereof 14a, b, c, d project beyond the lip and provide handleor gripping means which may be lifted upwardly and across the upper end the flat film type cover is applied and sealed to the coating film 12 as indicated at 18 in FIG. 3, thus sealing the contents of the container. From the sealed area 18 to the edge 12a of the lip the coating film l6 protects the underlying lip surface from contamination and when removed, the exposed surface will be in sanitary condition for lip contact for drinking from the container or otherwise dispensing the contents of the container. The removal of the cover 14 and coating layer 16 is shown in FIG. where the flexible nature of the cover sheet material facilitates its being rolled back to assist in peeling or stripping the coating layer 16 from the container lip 12 to expose the sanitary surface of the container lip for drinking or other dispensing of the contents of the container.

The material of the closure member 14 and the coating layer 16 may be a suitable plastic such as polyethylene based materials, and the container may be formed of plastic, paper or other suitable material. The closure member 14 may further be formed of a metal foil material or a laminate of metal foil and plastic materials. The coating may be deposited on the container in any suitable manner as by spraying, curtain coating and the like. Spraying of the coating material contemplates nesting a plurality of containers so that an arrangement of plurality of stacked side-by-side lips is defined. The stack is then sprayed with the coating material to effectively coat only the lips or rims of the containers. The containers are then de-nested for filling and application of the covers. The coating layer is relatively thin so as to'facilitate peeling thereof away from the container lip upon removal of the cover or closure. In peeling away from the container lip, the coating layer may stretch or tear for this purpose, depending on the material used, but there will be substantially no surface adherence between the coating layer and the surface of the container resulting from the coating operation. The closure sheet 14 may be secured to the top surface portion of the coating layer 16 in any suitable manner as by adhesion, but with suitable plastic materials it is more convenient to secure the same by heating and pressure which would tend to slightly flatten the sealing area 18 as shown in FIG. 4. The seal at 18 between the closure member and coating layer is sufficiently tenacious to maintain its integrity for the purpose of stripping or peeling the coating layer upon removal of the closure even though some additional adherence between the coating layer and the container lip in the area 18 may result from the heat sealing operation if the container material is of similar plastic material.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 6-8, the coating 22 is applied to the lip 21 to extend substantially from the point of tangency of the lid 14 outwardly, downwardly and inwardly to the free intumed edge 21a thereof. The flat substantially square lid 14 is adhered both to the coating 22 at 23 and to the container at 24 by any suitable means such as adhesion, heat sealing or the like as described in regard to the first embodiment.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 6-8 the sealing at 24 of the cover 14 to the container provides the primary sealing for the contents of the container while the sealing at 23 is primarily provided so that the coating 22 is simultaneously removed with the cover 14 when the cover 14 is bent back such as shown in FIG. 5.

Having described the invention, it is to be understood that changes be made in the described embodiments by one skilled in the art within the spirit and scope as defined by the claims.

I claim:

1. A combined container and closure assembly, said container comprising a substantially thin-walled plastic container having a substantially annular curled rim portion the upper surface of which is a convex curve, said closure comprising a fiat rectangular sheet positioned on said rim portion of said container substantially in a flat plane tangentially directly engaging the uppermost extremity of said upper surface, said closure having a width and length greater than the diameter of the circle defined by the tangential engagement of said closure with said upper surface, and a coating film substantially completely covering said rim portion only from a first ring immediately outwardly of said circle defined by said tangential engagement thereof by said closure to the outer lowermost extremity thereof, said coating film being secured to said closure member only on a ring coinsiding with said first ring and having greater adherence thereto than the adherence of said coating film to said rim portion, whereby a peeling removal of said closure from said container will remove said coating film with said closure.

2. A combined container and closure assembly as defined in claim I, and said closure directly secured to said upper surface immediately inwardly of said circle defined by the tangential engagement of said closure with said rim portion. 

1. A combined container and closure assembly, said container comprising a substantially thin-walled plastic container having a substantially annular curled rim portion the upper surface of which is a convex curve, said closure comprising a flat rectangular sheet positioned on said rim portion of said container substantially in a flat plane tangentially directly engaging the uppermost extremity of said upper surface, said closure having a width and length greater than the diameter of the circle defined by the tangential engagement of said closure with said upper surface, and a coating film substantially completely covering said rim portion only from a first ring immediately outwardly of said circle defined by said tangential engagement thereof by said closure to the outer lowermost extremity thereof, said coating film being secured to said closure member only on a ring coinsiding with said first ring and having greater adherence thereto than the adherence of said coating film to said rim portion, whereby a peeling removal of said closure from said container will remove said coating film with said closure.
 2. A combined container and closure assembly as defined in claim 1, and said closure directly secured to said upper surface immediately inwardly of said circle defined by the tangential engagement of said closure with said rim portion. 